Sherlock: Series Co-Creator Discusses Season Five Chances

by Jessica Pena, December 27, 2016

Will there be more Sherlock? Recently, co-creator Mark Gatiss spoke with TVLine about the future of the BBC TV series.

Season four of the mystery drama, which airs on PBS in the United States, premieres on January 1st. Regular cast members Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, Rupert Graves, Mark Gatiss, Una Stubbs, Louise Brealey, and Amanda Abbington are all returning.

In the interview, Gatiss said he doesn’t know if season four will be the end:

These three [episodes], we’ve very, very pleased with them. And everybody’s very keen to carry on. It’s just genuinely difficult to schedule everyone’s diaries. It was a nightmare to schedule this season… and that’s not going to go away. I mean, the success of Doctor Strange is not going to make Benedict short of work.”

However, he did mention that he respects leaving well enough alone:

[T]here is a great precedent for leaving well alone. [The classic UK sitcom] Fawlty Towers is twelve episodes, with four years apart. And it’s perfect.”

Earlier, star Martin Freeman said season four does have a sense of finality to it:

Life does sometimes have a way of telling you, ‘This is probably it now. This last [season] did have a feeling of — I don’t know whether it has a finality to it — but it certainly had a feeling of a pause. It definitely had a feeling of that. And I am never ever afraid of things ending. I mean I am not looking forward to life ending or love ending, but things that we make should end.”

What do you think? Are you a fan of Sherlock? Do you think the show should end with season four or continue?